


Car Share - Counting Down the Hours

by EightiesChick



Series: A Change of Destination [3]
Category: Peter Kay's Car Share (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 05:20:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15834543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EightiesChick/pseuds/EightiesChick
Summary: John and Kayleigh struggle to be apart from each other when Kayleigh has to go away for work.*In my infinite wisdom, I accidentally deleted this story, so here it is again!*





	Car Share - Counting Down the Hours

John looked at Kayleigh in complete, euphoric disbelief.  
“You're certain?” He asked, his shock threatening to take over.  
“I'm positive!” Kayleigh replied, her smile stretching from ear to ear.

 

Two days earlier.

The neon numbers on John’s twenty year old clock radio glimmered, showing 7.44am. As the numbers changed to 7.45am Forever FM burst into life piercing the silence in the room.

John lay in the nearby by bed, his duvet over his head. He grumbled as his slumber was rudely interrupted by the sound of Ken Bamber trying to persuade him to sample his sausage. 

“It's Saturday,” John protested, as his reached his arm out from under the duvet, trying to rid the noise and the unnecessary thoughts of Ken Bamber's sausage. 

“It's too early,” He thought, as he reluctantly threw back the duvet and slowly sat up on the side of his bed, rubbing his eyes and his face. 

He sat there, in his Run the World vest and boxers. He closed his eyes and yawned, trying to wake himself up.

As he opened his eyes, he looked back to the empty space on the opposite side of the bed. He sighed, one which was combined with a tug on his heart as he thought about the woman who had been sharing his bed with for the previous three months. 

 

It was the beginning of November. As John sat he started to reminisce about how much his life had changed in the previous twelve months and how, in some ways, it was totally unrecognisable. 

It had been almost a year since his father had passed. He had never felt pain like it. As any son would, he was absolutely devastated when it happened and the balls up with the music at the funeral certainly didn't help matters. He took a month off work to sort everything out and to try and get his head around it all. He slowly realised that he never would, but, as cliche as it sounded, it gradually got a tiny bit better, one day at a time. 

John adored his father. He was his hero. His Dad had given his everything to his family and all John ever wanted to do was make him proud. John still harboured some sadness that things never worked out with Charlotte, not for himself but because he knew his Dad had been so fond of her. However, he ached even more for the fact that his beloved Dad would never get the chance to meet the true love of his life. 

Kayleigh Kitson. “Who knew?" He often thought. They had worked together in the same supermarket for years. Right underneath the others nose. Before they started car sharing, their limited conversations had consisted mostly of “Good Morning” and the occasional request from John for Kayleigh to cover Joyce Chung on checkouts. He sometimes wondered where they would be now if the car sharing scheme had been introduced sooner or if he had ended up with someone else. 

“My God,” he thought. “I could have ended up with Stink Ray or Elsie." And for that he would always be grateful to Cath Hilton for pairing him up with Kayleigh. Literally. The stores own, unknowing, Cupid.

Kayleigh had entered his life like a whirlwind and at a time when John hadn’t even realised he needed it. The first day he picked her up for work was almost seven months after his dad had passed. He was living his life from day to day. He wasn’t a hermit, far from it. He regularly looked after his niece and nephew, Our Paul’s Ben and Sophie, and he adored them both. He also did the occasional gig with his mate Jim and he loved to cook on an evening. Anything from lamb stew to proper double dunk chips. His culinary skills were good, but sometimes, cooking just for one didn’t warrant the effort. He came to realised that he was just going through the motions. 

John had started that fateful day in June not in the best of moods. He had lost over half an hour arguing with the satnav lady in an attempt to locate Kayleigh’s house and had almost given up before eventually finding it. 

She had barely been in his car sixty seconds before she made her presence felt, and not just from the sweet aroma of Jade Goody’s Shush which frequently wafted in his direction.  
“I was right” he thought as he remembered the first song they had heard together in the car after Kayleigh had retuned his stereo to Forever FM; now a permanent installation on his radio. “I don’t think Martika’s kitchen is timeless.” He’d said.  
Without pausing for breath she had replied “Well, you remembered it.” 

At the time, it bugged him that she had got one over on him, and piss-gate was best forgotten. But by the end of the first day, he had opened up to her about Anna, someone he hadn’t thought about, let alone mentioned in years and it had startled him how easy it was to talk to her. Combined with the warm glow he felt when Kayleigh said that she wanted to share with him and didn’t want another car share buddy, he knew by the end of the very first day that he was in trouble. 

Their friendship and his feelings grew in the weeks that followed until the day that everything changed. He still had pangs of guilt each time he thought about how he nearly lost her. Ever since she had given him the Now 48 CD and dedicated a song to him, he knew she liked him. He more than liked her but was terrified of being hurt or hurting her. Yet he had done that anyway. Not intentionally. He would never knowingly hurt her, but his fear and stupidity had done that for him. However, after words of advice from Elsie, of all people, and the loan of the local Lion Club's Christmas sleigh, John and Kayleigh had made up, got engaged and by the end of the weekend, John had asked Kayleigh to move in with him. 

 

John looked at the empty space in the bed next to him. This was the third morning in a row without her at home and he ached to see her. 

At the moment John’s mobile phone started to chirp loudly, snapping John out of his reverie. He picked it up from the dresser and felt his heart swell as he saw Kayleigh’s name on the screen. It was as if she had read his mind.

“God, I miss you.” he said as he answered the phone, surprising both himself and Kayleigh. 

“I miss you too,” Kayleigh began as she sat alone in the restaurant of a very posh and exclusive manor house, nursing a lukewarm mug of tea. “I can’t wait to see you later.”

“What time do you finish?” John asked, secretly hoping the day would be cancelled and she would be home sooner. 

“Meant to be done by six. I’m hoping that as it’s a Saturday the tutor will want to be done early so he can get hit the hotel bar.” 

“Can't believe work booked the course in to the Saturday. They never used to when I was doing them.” John said.

“Well, a lots changed since the dark ages!” She smiled.

“Cheeky bitch!” He joked, making Kayleigh giggle.

A group of Kayleigh’s course delegates arrived in the restaurant and headed toward the free breakfast buffet, poking and prodding the variety of fried breakfast food and selection of cereals.

“You love me really.” She teased.

“That I do. Lord knows why!” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

The delegates approached a table near to Kayleigh but, they sat away from her, not wanting to interrupt her call. 

Silence punctuated John and Kayleigh’s conversation. After a few moments Kayleigh sighed, trying to fight tears which threatened to overflow.

“Oh John…” She began. Her voice breaking as she spoke. John desperately wanted to reach through the phone and embrace her in a bear hug. 

“Oh, sweetheart, you daft bugger. I’ll see you tonight. One more day. Not even a day, a few hours. This is important for you. My little Assistant Department Manager. I am so so proud of you I could burst.”

Kayleigh smiled, but was failing to hide the fact that she was now actually crying.

“Oh, John, now you’ve really set me off.” 

John laughs to himself.

“Look, Kayleigh I better go before I make things worse. I'll see you later I promise. I love you, my piss throwing psycho.”

“I love you too my big gay mute”.

A couple of the delegates at the nearby table look up toward Kayleigh, a little bemused over what they'd heard. Kayleigh just smiles and nods to acknowledge them.

“Morning, you alright?”

The delegates smile back and return to their chosen buffet food.

“See you later?” She asked.

“For certain. Bye.”

“Bye”

John hung up the phone. He decided the sooner he got up and did everything he needed to do the sooner he would be able to see Kayleigh. With that thought inspiring him, he made his way out of the bedroom and headed to the shower. 

John’s first port of call on this Saturday morning was to pop in and see his Mam and his Nana Rose to apologise for the fact that he and Kayleigh would be missing Sunday lunch the following day. After their few days apart John wanted Kayleigh all to himself, however that wouldn't exactly be the reason he would give to his family matriarchs. Since the weekend Kayleigh moved in with John every Sunday was spent at either his Mam or Nana’s house and Kayleigh loved every minute of it. They would all eat so much that falling into a food coma was a frequent occurrence. Kayleigh had been mortified the first time she’d nodded off after a plate full of roast beef and yorkshire pudding, followed by Nana Rose's famous trifle. Admittedly, the football was on the telly and that generally did bore her to tears. Gradually it became a comfortable routine for John and Kayleigh to curl up together on the sofa, John watching the football with his arm around Kayleigh as she fell asleep.

On the Sundays that John's team didn't play they would all sit around the dining room table playing cards for pennies. Kayleigh soon picked up the rules to Poker, Newmarket and Rummy, but more often than not, by the end of the afternoon they would all be declared bankrupt by Nana Rose. Kayleigh was convinced that Nana Rose must have been a hustler back in the day.

Johns family fell in love with Kayleigh as quickly as she did with them. John's Mam especially took to Kayleigh. She was ecstatic to see Her John so happy, she just wished John’s dad had been around to see it too.

John left his mam’s house by mid morning, but only after he had promised his Nana that he would go round later in the week with Kayleigh and bring fish and chips for their supper did she let him go.

He followed his family duties with a sneaky ‘Fat Boy’ at his favourite cafe. It had been the first time he had been back there since Kayleigh decided to use their bathroom to paint her face ready for her transition into a blackcurrant for the day’s promotion. 

John decided enough time and embarrassment had passed that he could frequent the establishment once more. While John sat eating the last of his breakfast he realised he had unconsciously saved the rind of his bacon for Kayleigh. “That's the best bit,” she once told him, so since that day it was always hers for the taking.

John and Kayleigh had only officially been a couple for a few months yet it now felt strange to John, not to be with her on a weekend. It had all happened very fast. In the space of a few days Kayleigh had left John, sold her house (albeit a coincidence as it had been on the market for weeks), quit her job, bought and cancelled an airline ticket to Australia, got her job back, got a promotion, moved into Johns house and gained a fiance in the process. 

Now it seemed that they were always together, or at the very least never an hour or two spent apart. Except the last few days. John was over the moon when Kayleigh told him about the promotion to Assistant Manager of the clothing department. She transitioned into the role seamlessly, so much so that even the n-o-b head that was Dave Thompson was forced to admit that he may have got her all wrong. That just made John even more proud.

But, because of the new role, Kayleigh had been spending the last few days on a management training course. She tried to persuade John to go on it too, but considering he had been at the store twenty plus years they would probably concluded that he would have been over-qualified.

 

After paying the bill, John left and headed back to his car. Climbing into the passenger seat his he looked at the clock. 1.21. He didn't believe in fate but he was starting to get a little paturbed by the fact the he had frequently been waking at this precise time and now it was haunting his days. After a moment, John shook the thought from his head and scolded himself for believing in such nonsense. Four and a half hours to go and that was before she even left the hotel. 

John leaned back on the headrest and closed his eyes for a moment. Then suddenly, like a bolt of lightning he made a snap decision. Before he could change his mind he started the car and began the journey home. 

On the way he dialled the work number, knowing Dave Thompson was duty manager on shift. After a brief conversation with Jenny from the office, John was eventually put through. 

“Hi Dave, it’s John…” he started. 

“Hiya John, what can I do for you? You know it's Saturday?”

“Yeah, I know, I know…. Look Dave, sorry for the short notice, but Kayleigh and I need to book a few days annual leave. I'll call Kath Hilton on Monday. Everything is up to date with the Christmas team and the next big delivery isn't till Thursday. I'll be back by then. Cheers Dave, bye”

John hung up the phone without giving Dave the chance to answer or to refuse. He was a man on a mission and he had now had to put his plan into motion.


End file.
